Interdisciplinary Health Studies PhD Program Guide
Overview
The resources listed here have been selected for the work you are doing in your courses as well as for future research in your doctoral program. This is by no means a complete list of resources you might need to consult. Please ask for assistance if you have any trouble locating information on your topic.
As you are searching you should keep track of key words and terms that retrieve relevant information. Keywords which work successfully in one source may or may not work well in another source. You may have to try multiple terms to find what you are looking for.
The sources on this list have some full text, but not everything is available in full text online. You will need to use the Interlibrary Loan service to get materials not available in full text.
Please feel free to contact me if you have questions. michele.behr@wmich.edu Phone: 269-387-5611
Journal Articles
The following is a selective listing of sources for journal articles and conference papers.
Scopus is a very large abstract and indexing database primarily covering scholarly literature in science and social science. Use this to get extensive inter-disciplinary access to journal articles and also to find out which articles are being cited by other scholars. Scopus includes 14,000 peer-reviewed titles from more than 4,000 international publishers. Coverage from 1995. Tutorial
- RefWorks Info: Scopus will export marked citations directly into your RefWorks account. (You will be prompted to login.)
Is the National Library of Medicine's interface for searching MEDLINE, the major index to medical research, from clinical medicine to cellular and biomolecular biology. Free citations and abstracts, limited full text. Coverage: 1949 - present. Updated weekly.
Tips for using PubMed effectively are found in the NLM PubMed tutorial and UFL PubMed tutorial.
Librarian's Comment: This database is also available through the FirstSearch Interface as well as though SciFinder Scholar.
Contains three major databases: (1) Science Citation Index Expanded (1900-present), (2) Social Sciences Citation Index (1956-present), and (3) Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1975-present). Cited Ref. Search allows users to search for articles that cite a particular author or work.Tutorial
Please LOGOFF when finished, so others may use the database.
CINAHL (Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health)
Indexes journals in nursing and related fields with full text for 560 of them. Some go back as far as 1937. Updated weekly.
Psychological Abstracts BF 1 .P65 (General Stacks)
Covers world-wide literature in psychology and related disciplines. Journal articles, technical reports, books, book chapters, and dissertations are included. Coverage: 1887-present. Updated weekly.
Use the Thesaurus of Psychological Index Terms for subject words: BF1 .P65x 2007 (Education Lib. and Waldo Ref.)
Indexes hundreds of nursing journals and provides full text access to over forty of these journals. Searches can be limited just to full text or review articles. Updated daily.
Journal Finder (Find It @ WMU)
Find electronic and print journals available at WMU. Search for a journal title, browse journals by subject or collection, or look for a specific article if you have a citation (CitationLinker).
Librarian's Comment: If you know the name of the journal you are looking for this is the best place to start as it will link you to the full text wherever it happens to be.
Books
Comprehensive catalog of books and other materials in libraries around the world. Contains millions of records in hundreds of languages. Non-book materials include (among other publication formats) the titles of journals and magazines, manuscripts, maps, electronic resources, websites, computer programs, music scores, films, slides, sound recordings, conference proceedings, and videotapes. Items located through WorldCat must be requested through Interlibrary Loan unless they are also listed in the WMU Libraries catalog.
Librarian's Comment: Use WorldCat to identify books of interest. Use the "Libraries" link when viewing a citation to check if a library local to you has the book. Of course you may also use the interlibrary loan service to request it.
In 2009 we added a new interface to our catalog. It still identifies books (including online books), journal titles, government documents, music, videos, maps, and other items in the University Libraries. It can still be searched by title, author, subject, but now you can choose the format and location in your first search. There are easy ways of narrowing your search in the left column, it offers "did you mean" spelling, favorite lists, and lets you tag items with your own labels.
Evidence Based Medicine
Evidence-based medicine databases including systematic reviews and a controlled trials register on the effects of health care.
For general access, click the "Open Generic Account." Allied health, nursing and physical assistant students should use the Personal Account. Select "Get Personal Account" from the initial page. MD Consult includes 49 medical reference texts, full-text articles from 70 journals, MEDLINE and other sources, clinical practice guidelines, patient education handouts, drug information and current medical information.
Health Statistics
National Center for Health Statistics
NCHS data systems include data on vital events as well as information on health status, lifestyle and exposure to unhealthy influences, the onset and diagnosis of illness and disability, and the use of health care. These data are used by policymakers in Congress and the Administration, by medical researchers, and by others in the health community. Posted reports and news releases also provide analysis of some of these statistics.
Librarian's Comment: Includes 50 health indicators for the WHO 192 Member States. This second edition of World Health Statistics includes an expanded set of statistics, with a particular focus on equity between and within countries.
Dissertations
Dissertations and Theses (ProQuest)
Indexes virtually all doctoral dissertations and many masters theses produced in the U.S. since 1860 and many from foreign schools as well. Abstracts available from 1980. Full text for most dissertations available from 1997. Some authors choose to not make their dissertations available. Print and microfilm copies are offered for a fee, but check out Interlibrary Loan before paying for a copy.
- RefWorks Info: Dissertations and Theses (Proquest) will export marked citations directly into your RefWorks account. (You will be prompted to login.)
Librarian's Comment: Dissertations may be particularly useful for their bibliographies and literature reviews. Full text is available for most dissertations published since 1997.
Citing Sources
APA Style Guides (American Psychological Association )
APA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue)
APA Style
Electronic References - APA Style.
This citation management software allows you to import citations directly from electronic indexes and create and manage your own bibliographies. Use with word processing software to cite and format references easily in a variety of writing styles. You will have to set up an individualized account the first time you use RefWorks. An excellent tutorial is available in RefWorks under Help. Tutorial
Grants
Database of 50,000 first-person expertise descriptions. Primarily designed to identify research contacts and funding opportunities.
Librarian's Comment: Also a good source for many types of statistics.
Selected list of information on grants and funding sources.
Other Sources
The following are a selected few miscellaneous sources.
This service from Google searches scholarly literature, including articles, theses, books and technical reports from many areas of research. Some materials are free, some will be available to WMU users by clicking on Find it @WMU, while others will require a fee. Please remember to use library databases for a more complete search of scholarly literature.
Librarian's Comment: Set "Search Preferences" to WMU to see resources licensed through the WMU libraries.
List of Journals Indexed for Medline
The list is a PDF file that includes an alphabetic list of journals by abbreviated title. Click through the Terms and Conditions page to get to it.
Access to JAMA, and other specialty journals in medicine, as well as links to science journals. If the link under patient information is followed to the AMA Library, then to the Medical Resource Center, links will be found to free electronic journals and electronic books.
Learning Resource Center, WMU College of Health and Human Services
The website for the Learning Resource Center includes information on their resources and hours, as well as a good collection of links to health and medical directories, news sources, libraries, reference tools, etc.
Health information from the National Library of Medicine presented accessibly for professionals and non-professionals.
Document Delivery and Interlibrary Loan
Set up a username & password here to submit automated requests from online indexes. Allow up to 2 weeks for materials to arrive.
DetailsLibrarian's Comment: Use this same system to request materials in the WMU Libraries. Articles are normally delivered electronically. Books are sent to you. You may also want to check if a library near you has the material you want.
Library Services
University Libraries makes the following facilities, services, and collections available for you.
University Libraries Copy Center provides printing and photocopying services.
The University Libraries has a collection of over 6,000 videos, DVD's, and films. Use the links in the right hand column for information on locating, and borrowing these materials.
Librarian's Comment: If you register for an account in Scopus you can set up automatic alerts via e-mail when new materials that match your search terms are entered into the database. This is an excellent source for conference papers. Also has nice features for searching scholarly materials on the web.